What Does Isaiah 10:7 Mean in the King James?
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A force can serve a purpose it never intends while its own heart remains set on cutting others away.
THE MEANING
A power in your world can serve an outcome beyond its own intention while its heart remains set on destruction. The verse holds both truths together: a larger purpose does not make the wish to erase whole peoples harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief is that if destructive power serves a larger purpose, its own intention must therefore be good. The verse separates what the power means from what its action serves.
THE ROOT
לְהַכְרִית
lehakrit
GROWS FROM
כרת
to cut, sever
“cut off” in this verse is lehakrit. The Hebrew verb כרת (karat) names severing: the image is not merely defeat, but cutting away. The same verb appears in the phrase כרת ברית, “cut a covenant”; here its sharpness is aimed at whole peoples.
ALSO GROWS
karat: to cut, sever
כָּרַת
This is the basic verb whose force appears in the verse’s intention to cut nations off.
nikhrat: to be cut off, be severed
נִכְרַת
The same root describes the one subjected to severance, shifting attention from the act to what is cut away.
keritut: divorce, severance
כְּרִיתוּת
This branch uses the same root for a relationship being severed, showing how the word’s reach extends beyond physical cutting.
יַחְשֹׁב
yachshov
GROWS FROM
חשב
to think, reckon, plan
The root חשב (chashav) can describe thought as reckoning or planning, giving the verse’s “think” the weight of intention. The heart’s calculation is set on destruction, even as the action serves a purpose beyond that calculation.
ALSO GROWS
machashavah: thought, plan
מַחְשָׁבָה
This noun from חשב makes visible the root’s movement from thinking toward a formed intention.
cheshbon: account, calculation
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch shows the root’s sense of reckoning, sharpening the contrast between a power’s own design and the outcome its actions serve.
THE PATTERN
A larger outcome can pass through an intention that remains destructive.
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:THE THREAD
For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.The Hebrew verb כרת (karat), “cut off,” appears in both verses. Here the severing is the aggressor’s intention toward nations; there the same word names the declared cutting off of Babylon, extending the image to its name and remnant.
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